Valentine's Day Memories
by electricdream101
Summary: When Peeta asks Katniss on her first date as his place, a memory comes to him he never got to tell her until now.
1. Chapter 1

Peeta Mellark surveyed himself again. After brushing his hair for the umpteenth time, he finally was contented with how he looked. Somewhat. Scowling, he continued brushing his hair again.

"You know, you're never going to look perfect for her, so I suggest you quit worrying."

Turning around, he smiled. Of course, he would know Haymitch's voice anywhere. He hated to admit it, but sometimes the old drunk came in handy.

"So what am I supposed to do from here? I've had dates before, but…"

"Never Katniss."

"Never Katniss." Peeta confirmed, taking a tired sigh. He never thought this day would come, the day he finally stepped up and asked his childhood crush out to dinner. Being afraid of many things, including rejection, humiliation, and worse, Katniss telling him she loved Gale (which he surely hoped wasn't true) he blurted it out casually one day before he could stop himself. Surprisingly, she agreed to go to his place. Why, he still would have to know when she came.

The doorbell came like a shock to him, setting Haymitch into a fit of laughter. Laughing nervously himself, Peeta knew how pathetic he looked. Inviting a girl to dinner only to be shocked when she finally came was the opposite of being smooth, something Katniss expected him to be.

"What should I do now?" Peeta whispered, clearly nervous.

"Answer the effing doorbell!" came Haymitch as he bluntly shoved Peeta to the door. "Just don't get drunk and act foolish, you'll be fine."

Peeta frowned as Haymitch fled through the back door. He could already imagine Haymitch's thoughts along the lines of, "It's best to leave him alone to deal with his hormones. I'm low on scotch." Taking a deep breath, he proceeded to open the door.

She looked stunning as always, although he noticed she chose to leave Cinna and his team out of styling her for the night, at least only in terms of her clothing,. Her hair was cut differently now, it being a little bit shorter than when he last saw her, cascading in layers. She decided to wear a simple striped hoodie dress, its gray stripes matching her eyes. Her eyebrows rose up in mock surprise as she smirked when she noticed a corner of his lips rising.

"Glad I could come huh?" she said, letting out a breezy laugh and planting a kiss on his cheek. "The thought of leaving you with no one but Haymitch to talk to is tempting though."

"Don't even think about it." Peeta replied, as he took her hand and led her inside. He was happy to see her mouth slightly agape as she took in her surroundings. Being the creative chef that he was, he only prepared Katniss' favorite foods for the evening complete with a candlelit table, and desserts he made and frosted himself for later. He was glad to have listened to Haymitch's advice to make the dishes and arrangements himself.

"Nothing beats a man who can cook, bake, frost, and be funny enough to entertain women. You have it in for ya, kid." Haymitch said hours ago, slapping Peeta a high five.

"So you honestly want to stuff me for slaughter or something? The food looks amazing!" Katniss remarked in awe, as Peeta politely seated her opposite from him.

"Glad you think so. Although I must admit, I probably wouldn't be able to get all the necessary ingredients if we didn't win that sadistic thing." He said, as he sat himself as well. Like Katniss, he despised the Hunger Games as well, but they both agreed to leave thoughts of rebellion and overthrowing the Capitol aside for this dinner.

"Tell me about it." Katniss replied, taking a bite out of some shrimp. "I can't stand the stress of the games. Before and after the actual games. I mean, I heard we now have some fan club or something."

"Really? What do they call themselves?"

"I'm not exactly sure. Although I've heard they've combined our first names to form some sort of love team name or something."

"What is it?"

Katniss paused to recall. "So far, I've learned it's TaNiss or something. Weird huh?"

"TaNiss sounds like a Martian princess. I expected them to be more creative." Peeta answered, laughing. Katniss tried to stifle her laughter as her mouth was full. Eventually, she choke the food down with orange juice before continuing.

"I can't think of you thinking of anything better." She replied, her eyes teasingly testing him to give another witty reply.

"I did come up with something just now actually. It's wholly organic too."

"Really? And it's…?" Katniss replied, curious now.

"The new sensational duo from Disctrict Twelve!" Peeta announced moving his hands as if imagining a headline while doing a strong impersonation of Caesar Flickerman. "Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! From now on, they shall be known as KatPee! Now, that's hot."

Both of them exploded from laughter, in two separate ways. Katniss laughed at Peeta's joke while orange juice burst from her nose. Peeta was laughing at both Katniss and her nose.

"You're so evil! You did that on purpose dammit!" Katniss replied, laughing again, and wiping the residue of orange juice from her nose. Ironically, she thought that it was no coincidence orange juice was what Peeta prepared. Orange was his favorite color after all. He must be glad his favorite color is now humiliating me, she thought, smiling to herself.

"Seriously! Do you do this to all your dates?" she asked, as he volunteered to wipe her face.

"Nah, I only do this to the clumsy ones." Peeta replied, smiling as Katniss stuck her tongue out at him. "Besides, you're someone special."

Katniss felt a weird feeling in her stomach as he said that. She secretly like it when Peeta said things to confuse her feelings for him. Sometimes, her mind would tell her she would be a lot better off with Gale, but she was seriously doubting that now. Deciding not to think about that at that moment, she decided to revert her attention.

"When we were kids, I mean, did you really try to talk to me at all? Besides when you gave me bread of course. I'm kind of… just curious." Katniss mused, as she met his eyes again. He put both his hands on the table, and stared upwards, thinking.

"Well, there was this one time."

AN: Cliffhanger. LOL, don't worry. I promise to finish this story when the second chapter is posted. In the meantime, I'll leave you guys in suspense for a while. If you have any thoughts/suggestions, please review. Thanks!


	2. KatPee FTW A remembering of a letter

AN: It's kind of weird how this update started. XD I just finished reading Catching Fire, and I noticed how the cliffhanger in the end annoyed me so much I wanted the third book to arrive right away. So I was thinking, damn, my readers are probably annoyed with me as well, and it's gonna be quicker to supply an update than a whole novel like Suzanne Collins so might as well update. XD

"Well then, tell me." Katniss replied, lifting her eyes to him in anticipation.

For once, Peeta found himself at a loss for words. No doubt, words always came flowing through him easily, but telling Katniss one of the things he vowed not to tell her for the rest of his life was more of embarrassing than hard.

"You really wanna know?" he asked, hoping she would say no and forget about it. He knew though, that she wouldn't. Not Katniss.

"Well, you did bring it up. Might as well tell me."

Peeta sighed deeply before continuing. "Promise not to laugh?"

"No."

"Oh come on, Katniss."

"Fine! I'll _try._ Happy?"

Peeta chuckled, as he imagined Katniss biting her lip to stop from laughing. Unbeknownst to her, she did this quite a lot, and he liked it, despite himself. "Damn it Katniss, it's hard to concentrate when you're probing me like that with the staring."

"Well, you're going to have to get used to it. I would pull out a recorder if I wanted to you know."

"Okay, okay. I give." Peeta replied, holding his hands above while shaking his head. "Let's backtrack to two years ago, when we were both fourteen."

"_Come on, man. It's just a harmless dare bowl. You just get a slip of paper, and do the dare. It's that easy." Mikey guffawed, slapping me on the shoulder. Easy for him. That guy would take a dare any day. More than once I've been to crowds at school gathered when he did something particularly nuts, like streak around the block for example. This has only succeeded in increasing the pressure for me to not act like a scaredy cat._

_With my group of friends watching my every move like hawks, I felt exposed somehow. Having not even chosen a single slip of paper from the empty fish bowl didn't help at all with my sudden claustrophobia. So, I did what I had to do. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and took the darn paper._

_In it was written in hurried handwriting, Mikey's most probably were the words, "Talk to someone you've never talked to that you liked."_

_It would've even said, "Eat elephant poo". I could've even preffered that. Of course I didn't want to give in. The only person I told that I've had the longest crush on Katniss Everdeen was my best friend, who was unfortunately Mikey Strong. The guy has been trying to get me to talk to her for the longest time since I told him, and with Valentine's Day just around the corner, I knew he wouldn't want to miss an opportunity like this. After all, wasn't he the smoothest guy in our year? Getting me to smooth up as well would definitely boost his status even further, not like he needed any more boosting in my opinion._

_Like I also expected, wolf calls and cheers echoed across the room. Of course, none of these people actually knew who the secret was. Only Mikey who was triumphantly smirking beside me. I decided right then and there that I didn't want to look like a coward. Sure, I would let him win this round. But I would let him win on my own terms._

"_Okay, Strong. You're on." I replied in what I hoped to be a confident answer. More wolf calls assumed. "But, I'm gonna have two conditions."_

_Raising his eyebrows, Mikey replied, his voice testy. "Well, if you're so sure Mr. Confident, then let me hear your terms loud and clear."_

_Not surprisingly, a few ears inched closer to where Mikey and I sat._

"_Condition one, I'm going to have to write a Valentine's Day letter to her and deliver it personally."_

_At this point, some girls actually sighed, so I knew Mikey was keen on accepting. "So that's condition one, and the other?" he replied, still on the testy and unsure side._

"_Condition two, I'm not going to tell her who I am. It will be signed, anonymous."_

_The crowd booed. Some guys nodded, but I could see what they wanted was direct and to the point. No anonymous drama. Of course, I wouldn't allow it._

"_Hey hey! Quiet people! I've got a single condition of my own." Mikey bellowed after waving his hands to silence the students. _

"_My condition is, you have to tell her after. The time and date is entirely up to you. I'm already giving you a luxury here, so you better shake my hand on this one." He replied, making the crowd give silent chuckles. Luxury was beyond comprehension in District Twelve, so I must admit his joke was well placed._

"_You have a deal, man." I replied finally, and as our hands were secured, the cheers enveloped again. At that point, even when I bluntly decided to give in to his deal, the concept of telling Katniss Everdeen I've liked her since we were little was beyond my doing._

_I remembered staying up one night, trying to fathom even a single sentence beyond "Dear Katniss". I've heard people say in the past that through writing, one can pour their hearts out better than words. Well, to be honest, either through my tongue or through my pen, I thought I've got as much chance to have a decent talk with Katniss as a baby winning the Hunger Games._

_So I decided to use very little of my own words. Thinking of song that used to be popular when my grandparents were teens, I proceeded to write some of it down. When I finally read it, it precisely said whatever I felt in a single stanza. The letter read:_

_Dear Katniss,_

_Where is your boy tonight?_

_I hope he is a gentleman._

_Maybe he won't find out what I know._

_You were the last good thing about this part of town._

_I took this out of a really old song from Fall Out Boy from one of the CDs my grandparents left lying around. Hope you like it. It says exactly what I feel. Happy Valentine's Day._

_Anonymous._

It took a while for Katniss to process everything Peeta said. Sure she was very comfortable huddled with his arms around her in front of a warming fire, but even the ease of the environment couldn't mask her shock. Once he finished, she stared at him in a profound yet pleasantly surprised way, and this led to Peeta being confused as well. For once, he didn't know if he played his cards right with dumping all this on her in one night.

"Damn it. Now you must be horrified." Peeta laughed, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"Oh my God… Peeta… it…. You wrote that?" Katniss' reply came out, stuttery.

"You expected something better I know."

Katniss shook her head. "No Peeta. You don't understand. That was the only Valentine's Day card I ever received!"

Now it was Peeta's turn to be shocked. "But… surely…. Gale maybe…"

"No, he never did." she replied, shaking her head again. "His… feelings for me are quite new. But really Peeta, that….letter….was….so sweet that…. I kept it."

Her attention was now focused on fiddling her fingers and trying to prevent the blush in her face from spreading further. "I…dug around for hours in my dad's room trying to find the CD where that song was….. when I found it….. I…."

Her nervous laughter only succeeded in making Peeta all the more curious. "You did what?"

"I actually hugged the CD player. I loved the song so much." She said, looking up at him again, smiling. Peeta remembered the times he actually caught a genuine smile on her face, and he could only count them with one hand. He smiled right back as he was glad this moment was one of the few times he saw her smile. Really smile.

"So now, what are you gonna do now that you know it's me?"

"I'll just have to fill in the blanks myself." Katniss said softly as Peeta recognized that she used his own words.

As they quietly kissed, they both realized one thing. They could fool the Capitol. They could fool the cameras with their acting. They could fool the audience even. But they couldn't fool themselves and what they felt.

_Would you give me one more minute?_

_The story's far from finished_

_We could fill in all the pages._

_I'm feeling sick_

_Girl you're so contagious_

_-Contagious by Boys Like Girls_

AN: Fluffy ending, out. XD Hope you liked that ending guys. Oh, and who do you guys think should play Katniss and Peeta in the Hunger Games movie? My pick for Peeta is Kellan Lutz. I've seen pictures of him blonde, and it works! My pick for Katniss maybe is…. JoJo. I know it sounds weird here, but I've seen a pic of her with dark brown hair, and it may not be black, but she's the closest to Katniss I know in celebrities. Plus, she's got the olive skin look, the singing, and the acting down pat, so no problemo. Tell me what you guys think! ;) Oh, and don't forget to review the story of course. XD


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